Ecballium elaterium SQUIRTING CUCUMBER (10 seeds)

Devil's cucumber, also called exploding cucumber is a plant in the cucurbitaceae family, just like horned melon or loofah.
It is a European perennial plant.
Ecballium elaterium is a creeping plant with thick triangular leaves similar to those of zucchini.
Its flowers are pale yellow.
Exploding cucumber seeds are oval and brown in color, the size of those of borage or pomegranate.

At the end of summer the fruits appear, a multitude of small hairy cucumbers.
These hairy fruits free themselves from their peduncle and contract suddenly, like a catapult which ejects their black and shiny seeds several meters away, which is totally surprising and unusual.

In medicine, devil's cucumber was used by the Greeks.
It was cultivated in England for medicinal use, recognized there as a violent purgative.
Nowadays, the use of this plant has been suspended because it is considered far too dangerous.

The period to effectively sow exploding cucumber seeds is in May and April.
Prepare a tray or pots of horticultural soil then sow the jumping gherkin seeds by burying them only 3 to 4 millimeters of substrate.
Water the crop gently by spraying then place it in a greenhouse at a temperature of around 25°c.

Germination of this seeds will begin 3 to 5 weeks after sowing.

• Rare, surprising and ornamental plant.
• Untreated reproducible seeds.
• Beautiful flowering in summer.

Do not consume.
Unusual and atypical plant seeds to grow in the garden.